Chapter 14
"Wizard." She says pulling at her now far longer hair.
"We should get going, remember we have to blend and avoid being seen as much as possible."
"Yes Arl, I do know how to do this."
"Oh and, you and I are not particularly close so…I don't know if that will be important but I figure you should probably be aware that should someone start talking to you about stuff going on with other you right now, I can fill in no gaps."
"Got it."
"Then off we go, he should be in the archives." The two leave the salle and take the shortest route to the archives while sticking to the wall and attempting to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Somehow, they make it with no interruptions, Arl sees Dooku who is still sitting with her at one of the tables, Siri and Arl duck into the rows of shelves waiting for one of the two to leave.
"And you've no idea which of them is going to leave?" Siri asks, Arl smiles at her in the patient way she does everyone, it was really beginning to grate on Siri's nerves but, if she were the force, she'd probably look that way to people as well. She supposed that everyone was just a naïve floundering youngling with no true direction or purpose to speak of.
"No I do not. It was a very long time ago and my memory was terrible to begin with."
"You say that yet you remember battalions and squadrons, mission reports, and all sorts from the other timeline, or well, this timeline technically." Siri replies gesturing around them.
"Mostly from the war when forgetting would mean the deaths of thousands or more people."
"Fair enough."
"You're wrong you know." Siri looks at her in confusion despite Arl not facing her.
"About what?" Siri asks leaning on the shelves with her arms crossed and looking at the other girl questioningly, Arl continues watching her other-self and Dooku.
"You are not naïve nor direction or purposeless. Just because one cannot see their purpose does not mean one does not have one. A direction is just the way someone is heading, everyone has that, the trouble is being the thing to decide your direction, but you mastered that art long ago Siri Tachi. You make your own decisions and you force other people to as well, that is your purpose. You make other people take control of their own lives and the choices they make, you make them responsible for their decisions and the consequences. You have no idea how bad it gets when the Jedi of all people fail to do so." She raises an eyebrow at the back of the girl's head, Arl finally turns to look at her with a slightly sheepish smile, "Sorry, it's hard sometimes to stay on the other side of people's shields."
"What if I don't want that to be my purpose, what if I don't want to make other people do something, if I want to make something of myself. Something meaningful, that will be remembered long after my death, like you did." Arl looks thoughtful for a moment, arms crossed and biting her bottom lip.
"Siri, do you know why people struggle to believe the truth of who and what I am, that the force was once all together. That some creator exists and survived."
"Because they are stupid?" Arl chuckles quietly while shaking her head.
"No Siri, it's because it was forgotten and they had not heard of it." Siri's eyes widen slightly as she begins to see where this is going, "One day, it has even already started, people will forget Garen was the first to make the switch to Sith. They'll forget where it began but they will live where it grew to. He will be forgotten but the changes he made will live on forever. Just as mine did, this order, both versions of it, exist because of the choices I made, yet in the end I was forgotten almost entirely. Doing something meaningful does not mean being remembered, it means making a difference that will last, long after you do. Even if that difference is saving a child's life, that change will change so many other things that you won't even see, my point is, you have already made a difference. You are meaningful as are the decisions you make and the actions you have already performed. You were on the first true council of the order of the force, you helped create this thing, that won't be forgotten, not even when your name and face are." Siri internally curses herself for the tears that sting her eyes, she blinks them away and smiles gratefully at Arl who smiles back before turning and seeing other-Arl leave. "Go time."
The two stay out of sight in the aisles as long as possible before Arl is within hearing range of Dooku.
"Psst." She whispers, Siri calls on all her Sith training to refrain from laughing at the childish gesture. Dooku looks up and spots her, treating her to a bewildered expression even as he gets up and makes his way over.
"Knight Aa." He says with a half bow, she smiles politely and returns the bow.
"Master Dooku, I was wondering if I might ask you something about what you said before." He raises an eyebrow at Siri who smiles and only just stops herself from waving awkwardly, she bows instead.
"Master Dooku." He returns the bow.
"Padawan Tachi." Siri manages not to frown at still being a Padawan at twenty-one, still she supposed everyone had been knighted pretty early due to the trials they had all undertaken in her timeline. "I must say I am surprised to see you in the Archives, it was my understanding that you preferred to spend your time in the salle's or…other places."
"She's helping me with a project of mine, Master Gallia decided she needed more research experience." Arl covers as Siri bites back the glare, Arl had not mentioned that Dooku was a dick here, though given how he was before spending extended periods of time with them all, she should not be surprised.
"And what is this research project? You did not mention having a new one earlier." Arl and Siri could both detect the suspicion coming off of him, Arl internalises the curse she wishes she could expel, stupid Dooku and his ability to read everyone so well.
"You know my interest in the nature of the Force itself, that is how it started, but after what you said about there being 'another' out there, I thought perhaps I should expand my horizons, could you give any other information about what you found?" She asks as politely and 'youngling-ey' as she could.
"I could, if there weren't one problem with that." Dooku says with a neutral face, though he was radiating smugness…this could not be good.
"And what might that be?"
"Well for one, you are not the Arl Aa that just walked out of here. Two, I found that mention not one minute ago and was planning on bringing it up to you this afternoon when we meet up again." He says counting on his fingers, "Oh also, there's the council meeting that you just went off to, the one Padawan Tachi here is already attending."
"Could you have fucked up more?" Siri asks Arl after a beat of silence.
"Oh do shut up." Arl replies.
"Would one of you care to explain?" Dooku asks impatiently.
"Okay, Lord Tyranus, I am Lady Siri Tachi, I am a Sith representative on the High Council of the Order of The Force." Siri says with another bow more befitting of an equal than the earlier one, his eyebrows go up.
"I've been meaning to ask, why do you not have a Sith name?" Arl asks her.
"Is that really a priority right now Arl?"
"Yes."
"We decided that tradition could not continue if we were to have hundreds of Sith at a time. We would run out of names, plus Ty banned Arch from naming anymore Sith after he came up with 'Lord Schlau'."
"I thought it was neat." Dooku looks back and forth between them as though they are insane, Arl takes pity on him.
"Time travel, time travel, and more time travel. We need to know about this other entity, it's wreaking havoc in Tachi's timeline."
"Her timeline, not yours?" He asks, Arl smiles patiently at him.
"I do not have a timeline per se however it is the one I am currently residing in."
"Currently? Are you leaving? Because Obi will throw a fit if you do."
"I am not exactly leaving, nor am I staying, you all must understand that I do have other obligations as well besides your Order. You all manage well without me, you created the order, didn't you?"
"With your foundation and the motivation of you waking and being proud of us."
"Which I am but…wait…we're digressing, if you could just help us out please? I would rather we not be gone too long, shit is falling in a heap." Arl requests of Dooku who still seems lost. "You once told me that to adapt is to survive. When faced with a situation you cannot explain, deal with it first, work out the science later." He stares for a moment longer before nodding.
"Right then, Master Aa, Lady Tachi, if you'll follow me." He requests before turning and walking back to his table, grabbing the materials he needs and taking them back to his quarters along with Arl and Siri.
"Arlie!" A young voice calls from down the hall just as Arl and the other two were to enter Dooku's quarters, Arl turns and sees her youngest brother walking towards them, she smiles indulgently.
"I apologise for this baby brother but we are on the clock here, you will continue on to wherever you were heading and forget you saw Siri, Dooku, and myself." Arl says to her brother, using her own power to influence him with a force-suggestion.
"I will continue on to wherever I was heading and forget I saw Siri, Dooku, and yourself." He says zombie-like before walking off.
"Did you seriously just do that?" Siri asks Arl, neither of her companions looking impressed.
"Yeeees, why?"
"He's your brother! You don't use force suggestions on your friends! Especially since in your case it's all but mind control."
"Hey! I would never control someone's mind." Arl replies in a vicious growl looking disgusted at the prospect, Siri holds up placating hands as they enter the room and shut the door.
"I merely meant your suggestions have a lot more power behind them and he's a child, he had no hope."
"Good, I needed him to listen to it anyway." Arl replies not understanding the problem, Siri just throws her hands up.
"You know how Schlau was saying you two need to talk about social interaction? I am going to tell him to include this part." She says before dropping the subject entirely and making a gesture at Dooku to tell him not to even bother with it, he nods and places the materials in his arms onto the table.
"I have barely managed to begin a translation of this, I found reference to another but it was, well just before you called me over that I translated the middle of it of all places." Dooku says handing it over, Siri takes one look at it and hands it to Arl.
"It's Ch'blanc." Siri says as she hands over the document.
"Ah, yes. 'The Other, an entity, a mutation of energy a threat to our existence, of existence at all. She says it does not exist but I know otherwise, for nothing else could have done what I saw. She says it was a nightmare, but I know it was a vision. It was not from the force, it was from the other, though how I do not understand. She says it cannot physically exist, but then, neither can the force. I think she is wrong, for if existence exists, then non-existence does as well. One day, one will bring balance to the force and it's opposite. That day is not today, today I have seen the destruction it will cause, I do not know when, but I will not be here to see it. She says she will heed my warning, but I have seen that voice, those eyes, when aimed at younglings, I will not be so easily placated. The end is upon us but only I can see it coming, and so if I will not be listened to, I will make her see the truth, the destruction. And when I tell her again of what I saw, that it was worse, she will know the truth. I need a name for the suffering and misery I cause, it must be remembered if she is to listen, to be warned. And so I decided on one, I am a Sith. She will understand that our power must be cultivated if we are to stop them, if she will not hear me, I will make her hear me. And if she does not listen, then our help she will not receive. Let her destroy herself and everything else, but when the other prevails, so will I along with it. On that day, The Sith will reign and the Force will be no more. None must know, for they will not help, they believe in her too much, they do not know her like I do. The Sith will gain in power, never knowing the true purpose of their existence, they too will find out too late. The force will fall, and if it is to die, may she go along with it. It is her punishment for not heeding my warning. The Creator and the Force will be destroyed and the other will have victory, as will I.'" Arl reads aloud, her voice cracking several times throughout.
"Arl?" Siri asks, Arl outs a hand over her mouth as her eyes fill with tears.
"I didn't know, gods I should have seen." She says removing her hand and placing it on her forehead as panic overwhelms her along with guilt.
"Arl you need to calm down." Siri tells her, feeling the panic in the force surrounding her, Arl doesn't but she does collect all to surround only her.
"No, I need to do this I need to fix this. We need to go back Siri, we need to return home. Thank you Dooku." Arl tells him, "Now forget." She says before taking Siri's arm and going back.
"Are you going to explain at any point?" Siri asks as she follows Arl from Dooku's quarters to the meeting room.
"Siri I, it, I should have, I mean, I didn't, I, it's, gods I can't." Arl says as tears fall down her face and she leans her back on a wall before sliding down it. She pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and hiding her face in the knees as sobs wrack her body.
"Oh damn, um, there there." Siri says awkwardly patting her shoulder. "Should I uh, go get one of the others?" Arl doesn't seem to hear her. "I can't really just leave you here." Siri says thinking out loud, she sits down besides Arl and wraps an arm around the woman. "I don't know what is going on and I am not great at the whole 'comfort' thing. But I do know what guilt and regret looks like, allowing it to haunt you will not make it better. If you fucked up Arl, then stop crying, stop feeling sorry for yourself, get up, pull yourself together, and fix it." Arl takes a few deep breaths calming herself as much as she could.
"You're right, I owe him that much." Arl says though still crying a bit, she stands.
"Okay then, let's go." Siri says not sure what to make of that comment.
"What the fuck happened?" Garen asks when they walk in.
"Just, uh, stuff." Arl says, "The document Dooku found, it was written in Ch'blanc."
"What did it say? I assume you speak it fluently now." Dooku asks, she smiles. "If not having created it."
"I did not create everything you know…though in this case I did have a profound influence on it."
[What did it say Arl?] Quin signs, Arl sighs and gestures to Tachi who she knows memorised it as Arl read it.
"'The Other, an entity, a mutation of energy a threat to our existence, of existence at all. She says it does not exist but I know otherwise, for nothing else could have done what I saw. She says it was a nightmare, but I know it was a vision. It was not from the force, it was from the other, though how I do not understand. She says it cannot physically exist, but then, neither can the force. I think she is wrong, for if existence exists, then non-existence does as well. One day, one will bring balance to the force and it's opposite. That day is not today, today I have seen the destruction it will cause, I do not know when, but I will not be here to see it. She says she will heed my warning, but I have seen that voice, those eyes, when aimed at younglings, I will not be so easily placated. The end is upon us but only I can see it coming, and so if I will not be listened to, I will make her see the truth, the destruction. And when I tell her again of what I saw, that it was worse, she will know the truth. I need a name for the suffering and misery I cause must be remembered if she is to listen, to be warned. And so I decided on one, I am a Sith. She will understand that our power must be cultivated if we are to stop them, if she will not hear me, I will make her hear me. And if she does not listen, then our help she will not receive. Let her destroy herself and everything else, but when the other prevails, so will I along with it. On that day, The Sith will reign and the Force will be no more. None must know, for they will not help, they believe in her too much, they do not know her like I do. The Sith will gain in power, never knowing the true purpose of their existence, they too will find out too late. The force will fall, and if it is to die, may she go along with it. It is her punishment for not heeding my warning. The Creator and the Force will be destroyed and the other will have victory, as will I.'" Siri recites.
"I assume you know who wrote this?" Dooku asks, Arl nods.
"It was a very long time ago, before the Order split, obviously. His name was Obi-Kin Aa." Arl says earning a few weird looks, okay full disclosure, it was more than a few. "I missed my brothers, quit judging me, damn."
"That is so very much not what we were looking at you like that for." Anakin tells her.
"You didn't miss me?" Owen asks looking offended.
"Stuff your brothers, what about me?" Garen asks jokingly, Xan snaps his fingers at Garen agreeing with the statement, "Yeah, him too."
"This is not open for discussion." Arl declares. "Kin was my son."
"Why do I feel like you two didn't get along?" Terza asks as the others process her having a kid at all.
"I perhaps wasn't the best mother. I was too focused on the Order and the future, on everything really, except on him. There was a bit of resentment there sure but…I didn't think he wanted me dead. We had gotten along better when he was an adult, then he came to me one day saying he'd had a vision, a vision of a horrible future, that we needed to prepare. He did not know I was the force and instead of telling him that it had to be a nightmare because I am the force and did not give him a vision, I just dismissed his concerns, told him not to worry about it and sent him on his way." She says, "I possibly could have handled that situation better, neither of us were exactly at our best, his father had just died." She adds the last part more as an afterthought than anything else.
"Arl, he tried to create an army to fight something you refused to acknowledge with the intention of bowing before it and watching you be destroyed should he fail and refuse to save you. I think that is a bit more than 'possibly could have handled the situation better'." Bant tells her, Arl shrugs.
"From my perspective, my thirty-eight-year-old son, who is not my biggest fan, interrupts an important meeting to tell me about a vision I knew I didn't give him. I tried to placate him, to tell him it was a nightmare as I thought I knew it to be, and that everything was okay. How was I to know he'd break my order and turn against me? I feel like that's a bit of an over-reaction." Arl defends.
"And I thought the force-suggestion and memory altering on your family was bad." Siri mutters.
"I'm sorry the what now?" Mace asks.
"Not you guys relax, other-Ani and other-Dooku from the other timeline. I couldn't exactly let them remember we had been there, it would have screwed with everything. We have more important things to focus on right now than my morality." Arl tells them growing frustrated.
"You say that yet I just saw you completely break down in a hallway wracked with guilt." Siri points out.
"You were the one that told me to pull myself together and fix it, that is what I am trying to do. I cannot change how badly I fucked up my son 14 millenia ago, all I can do is try to undo the damage now."
"How could you not have known that your son was the first Sith?" Garen asks.
"I did know, I just didn't realise that was his reasoning. I thought he was just power-hungry. It would not have been the first time I saw people I loved, innocent people, do something like that for no apparent reason. I dealt with it and moved on, at least I thought I'd dealt with it."
"Do you even hear yourself?!" Garen demands, "HE WAS YOUR SON!"
"Really? I must have missed that somehow despite the hours of agonizing labour." Arl drawls sarcastically.
"It's like you don't even care Arls."
"I was a bit busy trying to SAVE THE ENTIRE KRIFFING GALAXY. AGAIN."
"You were once willing to let the entire galaxy suffer and die if it saved your brother's life."
"I was young and foolish. No one person is more important than a galaxy. Do you know how I learnt that Garen? I let the galaxy burn to save my brother, and watched as he was the one to help burn it down. That was on me. That will not ever happen again, not for my brother, not for my son, not for anyone." Arl tells him angrily. He looks at her heart brokenly.
"I was so glad to have you back Arlie, I guess I didn't notice that we didn't. My Arlie died and you came back instead." Garen declares before storming out of the room.
"So, this other entity…" Arlie begins saying before Xan interrupts.
"Are you seriously just going to continue on right now?"
"Was…I supposed to care about that little tantrum?" Arl asks looking genuinely confused as she gestures to the door Garen just left through.
"Okay, everyone be pissed off later, Qui, Mic, one of you or both go after Garen, we'll deal with this and then Arl, you and I are going to have a conversation." Mace tells her, she nods.
"As you wish." The other two leave to go after their padawan/apprentice. "Now, Obi-Kin seemed sure that this other entity had given him a vision of horrific destruction, one he believed we needed to prepare for."
"He seems to contradict himself throughout the…journal?" Plo points out, Arl nods.
"I do believe it is a journal, he wrote one as a child, I did not know he continued to into adulthood."
"He says he will fight this entity, but also says he will join it. Says he will be victorious along with it, but also says he will not live to see the destruction he envisioned."
"Visions can be hard to interpret perhaps that, along with him just writing down his whirling thoughts in a journal has produced this result." Obi suggests.
"Or he was drunk." Dooku adds re-reading it, Obi chuckles a bit as do Xan and Bant.
"I am fairly certain he was allergic to alcohol." Arl says thoughtfully.
"Fairly certain?" Bant asks not sure she wants to know the answer.
"It was either Kin or Shmina that was allergic."
"And Shmina is Kin's sister I am guessing?"
"Oh…I suppose yes."
"Suppose?" Mace asks very confused, Arl nods.
"I never really thought about it like that. Shmina and her twin were born 500 years after Kin, it was another lifetime."
"You have separated such things far too much in your head Arl." Obi tells his sister, she nods.
"Out of necessity."
"What do you mean?" Bellan asks confused, Arl smiles patiently once again, only this time there was a flicker of repressed pain in her eyes that Bellan was sure would haunt her for a long time.
"If you were going through life knowing everything around you was temporary, that it would all die and you would live on because that's what you do. What you always do, you live on. Well, how long could you stand it before you try to separate yourself as much as possible?" Arl asks, she blinks and the pain in her eyes is gone. "He may have been in a hurry." Arl says frowning thoughtfully at the table where Siri has written down the paragraph on some flimsiplast and placed it in the centre of said table.
"I think maybe he was just working through things in his head as he was writing it down, changing his mind several times as he thought about it more. If you witnessed this great destruction what would you have thought of first Arl?" Bellan suggests before looking to Arl.
"Changing the direction of history." Quin facepalms.
[I think she more meant back when you were just a lowly human.]
"Oh, um, I do not remember. Probably of how to save them."
"Yes okay, you were a bad example." Bellan admits.
"Making sure you are not there to see it's fruition." Dooku tells them, Bellan nods.
"I believe he intended on dying before it happened, then later realised that he would fight against it, then decided he would not, he would join it."
"You think a child of Arlie's would decide even briefly to opt out?" Reeft asks incredulously.
"I mean she did jump off a building so that she didn't have to watch reality end." Bellan says earning several baffled looks, "I did not mean for that to come out as harsh as it did."
"I should think not." Terza tells her former Padawan.
"She is not wrong though, Kin's first thoughts were always of himself before he thought past it."
"Gee I wonder why that was." Xan mutters.
"Probably because no one else's was going to be." Arl guesses non-chalantly.
"How can you say that so calmly?"
"Ever heard the phrase time heals all wounds?"
"Yes."
"It's rubbish, you're better off just blocking it out from the start."
"You really need to see a mind-healer."
"Xanatos, I am a mind-healer."
"Seriously?"
"How in all the god's names is this the topic right now?"
"This did not give us any more information about this other entity, we already knew it capable of visions." Mace tells them before looking up confused and looking around the place. "Um Arl."
"Yes Master?"
"Was this room used as a control centre of some kind in the other timeline?"
"War room yes."
"It's happening again?" Bellan asks him as Terza walks over and checks him over.
"Oh, dear gods." Mace suddenly exclaims looking horrified. "He-what-you? How could you ever do something like this?" Mace asks looking at Dooku with tears spilling down his face and a horrified look in his eyes.
"Mace I didn't do any of it, not me."
"If you were not capable of it, no version of you would be. It's just another timeline."
"What is it that I did?"
"You…" He begins saying before jumping and looking to the door. "This is it, this is when he fell for the third time isn't it?" He asks Arl who raises an eyebrow, "He killed Grey."
"Yes, it is."
"Who's Grey?" Garen asks as he and the other two walk back in.
"Someone who should never have died." Obi says quietly. "It was just to get the attention he needed to tell Arl something."
"What?" Dooku asks, Arl closes her eyes and counts to ten before breathing out.
"You killed a child in front of her Master and little sister in order to get my attention and tell me that you had murdered Xanatos."
"You were kind of a dick already in the other timeline when we were there." Siri admits.
"So, what did we learn about this other entity?"
"That a man long dead and not especially strong in the force thought he had a vision from something other than me. He thought it a mutation of energy and a threat to existence, he thought it to be non-existence." Arlie summarises.
"How could someone who is literally half-force not be strong in it?" Bant asks.
"Because I made it so. I kept as much of myself out of him as possible."
"Why?"
"Who is safer right now Bant? Us? Or some random force-null?"
"Debateable, where, when? Situation? Fighting skill?"
"Peaceful village, 14'000 years ago, stayed in the peaceful village, very skilled fighter."
"Probably the force-nul…oh."
"Sure, then she cared. Not when he needed help." Garen mutters, Arl stands up and turns to face him.
"Is there something you want to say to me Garen?" She demands.
"Yes, you are a terrible mother and a terrible person."
"I am not a person Garen, or have you forgotten that? Your friend died, I am what became of her soul after it was blended in with the energy that makes everything. You are right, she died, I came back instead. You can keep being a little bitch about it or you can mourn your friend and deal with the fact that you now have to deal with me if you all wish to survive."
"We wouldn't be in this danger if it weren't for you!"
"I cannot help that your friend made me Garen, I cannot help that I exist, I am sorry it bothers you so much. But do not ever presume to know a damned thing about me when you cannot even comprehend what I truly am."
"Why do you pretend to be her then?!" Garen demands.
"Garen that's enough!" Obi-Wan declares volatilely.
"If it bothers you so damned much that I took on my previous form then fine! I won't!" Arl declares before she glows white, when it goes away she looks completely different. Shoulder length blonde hair and light blue eyes, pale skin, faint freckles along her nose and under her eyes. She was the same height and build, though possible a little thicker than she had been since she was very skinny beforehand. "Call me what you damn well please but stop getting in my way." Even her voice was different, a slightly higher pitch than it had been before.
"Okay, Garen Fucking sit your ass down in that chair like you should have fucking done ages ago." Micah orders, Garen sits.
"Look, we'll all think on this and meet up tomorrow about it, for now everybody go and…calm the fuck down." Quinlan says aloud surprising everyone, but no one would have noticed him signing, including his Padawan. Everyone leaves.
"Garen, you and I, your quarters, Arlie, you and Mace, home. Asajj, you're going with Qui-Gon tonight. Everything will be better tomorrow dear, I promise." Mic dictates, his voice softening for the young girl who smiles shakily. The six mentioned leave, everyone else sits around for a while.
"Well fuck." Bant says.
"My sentiments exactly." Aayla agrees.
"You all know that was utter bullshit, right? It is actually Arlie." Obi clarifies, they nod.
"She's got some issues but that happens with living. It's still her, just like her last trip through time, and yours." Tahl tells him, everyone agrees with her.
"Just checking…Ani no." Obi says turning to look at his Padawan.
"I didn't say anything!"
"You need to shield better little brother."
"Oops."
"No killing the jackass no matter how much a jackass he manages to be. Besides Arl was an asshole too remember?"
"Yeah I did hear that too. That was also bullshit."
"Language!" Every adult in the room says save for Quin who raises an eyebrow.
[Explain.]
"[There is no way Arl cares that little, I don't care how long it's been.]"
"Experiences have a big effect on people Ani." Bellan reminds him softly, Obi shakes his head.
"It's not that, it's a defence mechanism. She was a lot like this when she first came to the order too. Pretended to care about nothing, was just generally an asshole and pushed everyone away. We weren't hugely close for a long time because of it. I didn't understand why Garen was so smitten with her, then I got to know her and realised she wasn't all bad. Anyway, that whole thing after Garen stormed out was an act, what he said fucking gutted her. She was literally telling me yesterday that she felt like she didn't belong here anymore, didn't know how to fit in when she isn't the same person she was before. I had dealt with the situation. Now that's gone to shit."
"He just needs time." Bant tells them.
"How much time does he have before the damage is irreparable though?" Reeft asks.
"As long as he needs, Arl can't hold a grudge for shit." Xanatos replies.
"And she has this habit of literally loving everything in existence, she can't help it." Anakin adds.
[Especially him.] Quin signs, they all nod, [Sorry Xan.]
"What? Why would I care?" He asks bewildered as though he hadn't just been looking like a kicked puppy.
"Boning my brother or not, you are not subtle about how you feel for Arl." Anakin declares earning several incredulous looks and a yank on his braid from his Master.
"What is with you today?" Obi-Wan demands.
"Oh, I don't know…might have something to do with walking through my home and being reminded that some version of me slaughtered everyone." Obi flinches. "Plo, do you want to tell Obi-Wan please about the new initiate you brought in?"
"A young Togruta, Ahsoka Tano." Plo says not sure why Anakin wants him to.
"You remember her?"
"I remember her leaving the order." Ani replies flatly.
"Okay, bad mood accepted. Not okay though, stop being an ass."
"Yes Master." Anakin concedes, "And sorry, to both you and Xanny."
"Thank you Anakin." Xanatos replies as Obi bows his head in acceptance.
"Is that still happening?" Reeft asks curiously, "What? We've been out of the loop for a while." He defends at the looks while looking to Bellan for a moment who nods.
"No, it is not." Xan replies.
"It's not?" Owen asks confused.
"It was a stupid mistake on both our parts Owen, one we have learnt from and moved on from." Obi explains, Xanatos nods in complete agreement. He was almost relieved when they'd had that conversation yesterday and ended whatever it was they had been doing.
"And by the way I do not have feelings for your sister." Xan defends, Anakin snorts, Xanatos glares at him. "I have the same amount of romantic attachment to your sister as you do to Little Obi's." It takes Anakin a minute to work out what that meant, then his eyes widen.
"Ha!" Owen says realising Anakin is so very trapped.